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Strip traffickers of ill-gotten gains to compensate victims – US lawyer

by Jake Soriano
Friday, 28 November 2014 16:48 GMT

Martina Vandenberg, founder and president of the Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center and Monique Villa, CEO of the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the 2014 Trust Women Conference

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* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

This story was written by Jake Soriano, a participant on a Reporting Trafficking and Slavery course held by Thomson Reuters Foundation in parallel with the Foundation’s Trust Women Conference. Jake is a freelance journalist working in the Philippines for VERA Files, Yahoo! News, the Global Post, the BBC and other media.

LONDON – Prosecutors should punish human traffickers by retrieving the profits gained from enslaving vulnerable people in sex, domestic and other forms of forced labour, as well as trying to put them in jail, a human rights lawyer has said.

An estimated 35.8 million people are living in slavery-like conditions, according to the Walk Free Foundation, an Australian-based human rights group. Experts say even if victims are rescued and freed, few get financial support to rebuild their shattered lives.

Martina Vandenberg, president of the Washington D.C.-based charity Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center, said public prosecutors should also focus on suing traffickers since successful lawsuits can help victims on their road to recovery.

"Trafficking victims have been held for sometimes 10, sometimes 20 years. They've lost all their earning power over that period and they can’t possibly make it up," Vandenberg told the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the Trust Women Conference.

"It is too much to ask a trafficking survivor who has escaped from a situation of slavery to live on nothing."

Human trafficking is one the most lucrative illicit industries in the world, after drugs and arms. Millions of forced labourers are generating an estimated $150 billion a year in profits for those who exploit them, said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in a recent report.

Two thirds, or $99 billion, comes from commercial sexual exploitation, while another $51 billion comes from forced economic exploitation, including domestic work, agriculture and other economic activities.

According to the Palermo Protocol - a set of rules adopted by the United Nations to combat trafficking - countries must ensure their anti-trafficking laws have a provision that addresses the issue of compensation for victims.

The United States has strong legislation on victim compensation, but prosecutors are unaware of the laws and often too focused on seeking prison sentences for the perpetrators, according to Vandenberg.

A September study co-authored by Vandenberg’s organisation found that prosecutors had only sought compensation for just over 60 percent of federal trafficking cases in the United States.

"Prosecutors don’t ask. And if the prosecutors don’t ask, the judge won’t award restitution," said Vandenberg.

"If you traffick someone, not only should you go to prison, but you should have to disgorge all of the money that you collected, all of the money that you gained due to fraud, and due to the crime that you committed."

 (Editing by Nita Bhalla)

((Jake Soriano was a participant on a Reporting Trafficking and Slavery course held by Thomson Reuters Foundation in parallel with the foundation’s Trust Women Conference. Jake is a freelance journalist working in the Philippines for VERA Files, Yahoo! News, the Global Post, the BBC and other media))

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